What can Home Schooling

Teach the Public Schools?

Mission

All students, families, and communities deserve an education of quality, instruction that is individualized and responsive, a curriculum that challenges, and a community of teachers, mentors, and family members who are thoughtful, nurturing and understanding. It is the mission of this researcher to seek a greater understanding of what the dedicated educators in homeschool families are successfully doing as they work together, and to share their successes with public school educators and policy makers.

Goals

These are the step by step goals of this research project

01.

COMPLETED, June 2018: Read and learn about the history and current state of the art of homeschooling, and design and propose to the Southern Conn. State University School of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies a research project that will explore how homeschool parents communicate, network, and support each other.

03.

COMPLETED: Sept.-Oct. 2018: Gather for informal focus group interviews Thoughtfully analyze the responses and suggestions of the focus group participants and present research findings to a dissertation committee at Southern Conn. State University.

02.

COMPLETED, Aug.-Sept. 2018: Recruit Connecticut homeschool parents willing to participate in one short focus group session at a local library, coffee shop, or similar to discuss for 15 or 20 minutes their support networks and real-world communication strategies.

04.

BENEFITS FOR ALL: This research and its entire process is designed to benefit all participants and educators, public, private, and home-based. The focus group experience is set up to be a beneficial forum for discussion, where parents may take home as a resource new ideas and positive motivation for continued homeschool success. Their ideas, too, will be (anonymously) published for educators everywhere to put into action!

“Home schooling parents are deeply committed to their children’s education.”

Joseph M. Jeffery | homeschooling researcher

History

I had just finished my hour of training at our local Karate school, the West Haven Academy of Karate, founded and run by Tang Soo Do Grand Master and Republican Connecticut State Representative Charles Ferraro, and was watching my sons complete their work for the day. In the lobby there were three mothers also watching their children, and they were discussing activities and learning opportunities for their homeschool children -- museum visits, tutoring, and meet-ups -- and it struck me like a bolt out of the blue: what dedicated and talented educators America's homeschool parents are! Here I saw three American parents: one from an Italian-American family we know and trained with at the school, one who speaks primarily Spanish, and one from an observant Muslim family wearing a hijab -- and here they were naturally and effectively creating the kind of support that every student needs, especially in the economically and socially challenging urban districts where I have done my teaching work.

For several years in the doctoral program at Southern Connecticut State University, my colleagues and I worked to learn research methods and publication standards, and put a lot of thought into what might be the best area of study for each of us. All along I knew that there was much to learn from homeschool families, and have felt inspired from the first to seek their wisdom and experience and bring it back to the world of public education.